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fore Mr. Owen's plan, hideous as it is, is in this respect
superior, is properly to be classed the existing United States government.—Liberty, May 16, 1891.

The original patent of the Bell Telephone Company expires
in March, 1893. "From personal tests in Boston," says an
expert in this matter, "I know they have practical instruments
that are one hundred per cent. better than those in use now.
They are keeping these instruments in reserve to meet the
competition of the future. The Western Union Telegraph
Company is doing the same thing." A paper called the
Canal Dispatch, commenting on this, indignantly complains that
"some of the glorious and useful instruments of the
nineteenth century are lying under lock and key as the fruit of
'free competition.'" This indignation is righteous, but
misdirected. It is not free competition that is keeping these
improvements locked up, but that form of monopoly known as
property in ideas. As the expert points out, as soon as the
patent expires and competition arrives, the improvements will
be brought to light.—Liberty, May 16, 1891.

In an article justifying the prohibition of the liquor traffic,
the Atlantic (Iowa) Investigator says: "According to the
Anarchistic theory, the government has no right to prohibit
anything, but only has the right to interfere where a wrong has
been done, and then only to make the wrong-doer repair
damages." I know not the source whence the Investigator derived
this notion of Anarchism, but it is certainly a mistaken one.
As to government. Anarchism holds that it has no business to
do anything whatsoever or even to exist ; but voluntary
defensive associations acting on the Anarchistic principle would
not only demand redress for, but would prohibit, all clearly
invasive acts. They would not, however, prohibit non-invasive
acts, even though these acts create additional opportunity for
invasive persons to act invasively. For instance, they would
not prevent the buying and selling of liquor, even though it be
true that some people are invasive when under the influence
of liquor. The Investigator has failed to grasp the
Anarchistic view. It makes the dividing line of Anarchism run
between prohibition of injury and compulsory redress, whereas
Anarchism really includes both. Its dividing line runs in an
entirely different direction, and separates invasion from
non-invasion. Let the Investigator try again,—Liberty, May 30,
1891.